In creating this work, I wanted to draw parallels to competitive sports culture in the States and to U.S. foreign policy. The ways U.S. culture embraces binary structures (us/them, win/lose, war/peace, friend/enemy) allow civilians to physically and psychologically distance themselves from the use of militarized armed force abroad, in support of U.S. interests. Instead, they can tune into national news channels for short clips of roadside bombings, and attacks from insurgency, reducing the action to blood sport. From the perspective of countries that have been ravaged by our policies and military action, the U.S. has long left behind efforts to ‘speak softly and carry a big stick,’ if indeed it was ever followed.

By employing digitally replicated versions of my original name tag as the predominant "material" in this series, I aim to speak to my many cultural identities, and my complex relationship with each of them: Southeast Asian woman, adopted child...a U.S. born daughter of refugees who fled their home for the country that had recently covered their cities and towns with bombs. The many challenges immigrants and first-generation citizens navigate daily may be overshadowed by the basic struggle to be welcomed and accepted by a country so incredibly hostile towards outsiders and "others." We outsiders often feel pressure to conform to a supposed "American" ideal, or to embody two-dimensional tropes and stereotypes, flattening and erasing our individuality in the process. What victories are there for people like us, who must negate our authentic selves to survive?”